Fans of Keith Haring’sworkcan see his graffito images of terpsichore figures , bark dog , glowing infants , and flying disk in museums and cities across America . Butaccording to NPR , one of the late American artist ’s lesser - know public work — a stairwell wall painting inside a former New York City convent — is now in danger .
Haring painted the mural inside the Grace House , a home for Catholic teenagers on Manhattan ’s Upper West Side , between 1983 and 1984 . The artist was scouting location for a pic , and Grace House asked him to grace the stairwell . By then , Haring was already famed , but he oblige and pass over the wall with his touch radiant babies , professional dancer , and dog . The entire project was fill in so quickly that looker can still see paint drips on the walls .
Keith Haring died from AIDS - related complications in 1990 — six or so years after paint the Grace House mural — at the eld of 31 . Today , it ’s one of less than 30 world-wide public works produce by Haring . Soon , this figure might dangle even lower : A local Christian church , the Church of the Ascension , possess Grace House — and thanks to fiscal difficulty , its functionary want to trade it .
Most of Grace House ’s tenants have moved out , but two tenant name Robert Savina and Yana Sabeva have hired a local law non - profit to help them fight eviction . They want to stay in their dwelling — and they also worry about the wall painting ’s future .
" My fear , and I cerebrate other people ’s awe , is that if they sell the building that anybody could go in and tear the construction down , " Savina differentiate NPR . " There did n’t seem to be … any forethought in : How do we keep up the mural ? "
For now , the employment ’s future is in oblivion : The Church has n’t sold Grace House yet , but tenants say that Realtor are showing it to prospective buyers .
[ h / tNPR ]
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